10 tips to find new relevant affiliates

How to find new affiliates for your affiliate program?

Building a successful affiliate program starts with one essential factor: a strong, active, and relevant affiliate base. Knowing how to find new affiliates is therefore a strategic challenge for any advertiser looking to scale performance while maintaining brand quality.

Brands that achieve strong conversion rates typically rely on high-traffic, niche publishers to build long-term, value-driven partnerships. These collaborations not only increase brand awareness but, most importantly, drive sales. Unless you have a large internal team dedicated to sourcing, recruiting affiliates efficiently becomes a key growth lever.

Before focusing on how to find new affiliates, make sure your affiliate program is attractive enough: clear commission structure, competitive remuneration, transparency, and strong brand value. Once these foundations are in place, here are proven strategies to help you recruit affiliates effectively.

1. Dedicated acquisition landing page

Design a landing page specifically dedicated to your affiliate program. Often accessible from the website footer (“Become an Affiliate” or “Affiliate Program”), this page should clearly present:

• Your brand and value proposition
• The benefits for affiliates
• Program terms and conditions

A strong call-to-action is essential to guide visitors toward registration and conversion.

2. Identify publishers

The goal is to identify websites and platforms that can promote your products or services. Affiliates can take many forms: content creators, bloggers, coupon websites, cashback platforms, price comparison tools, or media outlets.

Focus on publishers aligned with your target audience and reach out directly. Affiliate sourcing requires patience, but relevance is key to long-term success.

3. Use your current publisher list

You may already be working with bloggers, influencers, or media partners through one-off collaborations. If these partnerships have delivered results, consider integrating them into your affiliate program. Rewarding them on performance helps create recurring visibility, ongoing content, and sustainable partnerships.

4. Use your customer relationship

Your customers are a valuable source of insight. Ask them which blogs, platforms, or content creators they trust. This can help you identify new affiliates you may not have considered. You can even encourage referrals by inviting customers to recommend publishers or creators they follow.

5. Share your program

Make your affiliate program visible:

• On your website
• On your social media channels
• On platforms relevant to your industry

Visibility plays a key role in how to find new affiliates organically.

6. Emailers

Email partners can promote your offers to qualified databases based on defined targeting criteria. This can be done on a performance basis or via cost-per-lead models, depending on your objectives.

7. Research competitors’affiliates

Studying competitor backlinks is an effective way to identify potential affiliates. Tools like SEMrush allow you to uncover which publishers already promote similar brands. Once identified, evaluate their reputation and relevance before reaching out to ensure alignment with your sales and brand objectives.

8. Use Google products

Google is a powerful sourcing tool:

• Search queries like “product review” or “best [product]” reveal shopping guides, bloggers, and media sites
• Google Alerts on relevant keywords help identify new content creators

You can also run Google Ads or social ads (e.g. Facebook Ads) to promote your affiliate program directly. By setting a target acquisition cost, you can control investment while attracting qualified affiliates.

9. Publish your program

Listing your affiliate program on affiliate directories, forums, or specialized platforms increases exposure among publishers actively looking for new monetization opportunities.

10. Referrals

Encourage your existing affiliates to recommend your program by offering referral bonuses. Word-of-mouth remains a powerful acquisition channel. Beyond digital tactics, events, trade shows, and conferences are also excellent opportunities to meet potential affiliates and build long-term relationships.

Conclusion: scaling your affiliate program effectively

Understanding how to find new affiliates requires a mix of strategy, tools, and relationship-building. By combining structured sourcing methods with transparency and value-driven incentives, you can build a scalable affiliate ecosystem that supports both performance and brand growth.